Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
97 How I love your teachings!
I think about them all day long.
98 Your commands make me wiser than my enemies
because they are mine forever.
99 I am wiser than all my teachers
because I think about your rules.
100 I have more understanding than the elders
because I follow your orders.
101 I have avoided every evil way
so I could obey your word.
102 I haven’t stopped obeying your laws
because you yourself are my teacher.
103 Your promises are so sweet to me.
They are like honey to my mouth!
104 Your orders give me understanding.
So I hate lying ways.
The Place for Worship
12 These are the commands and laws you must carefully obey in the land the Lord your God is giving you. Obey them as long as you live in the land. 2 You will inherit the lands of these nations. You must completely destroy all the places where they serve their gods. These places are on high mountains and hills and under every green tree. 3 Tear down their altars. Smash their holy stone pillars. Burn their Asherah idols. Cut down their idols. Destroy their names from those places.
4 Don’t worship the Lord your God that way. 5 But look for the place the Lord your God will choose. He will choose a place among your tribes where he is to be worshiped. Go there. 6 Bring to that place your burnt offerings and sacrifices. Bring a tenth of what you gain and your special gifts. Bring what you have promised and the special gifts you want to give the Lord. And bring the first animals born to your herds and flocks.
7 There you will be together with the Lord your God. There you and your families will eat. And you will enjoy all the good things for which you have worked. The Lord your God has blessed you.
8 Do not worship the way we have been doing today. Each person does what he thinks is right. 9 You have not yet come to a resting place. The Lord your God will give you your own land. 10 But you will soon cross the Jordan River. And you will live in the land the Lord your God is giving you to own. And he will give you rest from all your enemies. You will live in safety. 11 Then the Lord your God will choose a place where he is to be worshiped. To that place you must bring everything I tell you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your offerings of a tenth of what you gain, your special gifts and all your best things you promised to the Lord. 12 There rejoice before the Lord your God. Everyone should rejoice: you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns, who have no land of their own.
41 The Jews began to complain about Jesus. They complained because he said, “I am the bread that comes down from heaven.” 42 The Jews said, “This is Jesus. We know his father and mother. He is only Joseph’s son. How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
43 But Jesus answered, “Stop complaining to each other. 44 The Father is the One who sent me. No one can come to me unless the Father draws him to me. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘God will teach all the people.’[a] Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the One who is from God. Only he has seen the Father. 47 I tell you the truth. He who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread that gives life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert. But still they died. 50 Here is the bread that comes down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will never die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh. I will give my flesh so that the people in the world may have life.”
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.